Sacred Texts in Oral Contexts: The Living Word and the Scripture (15 min)Ben Witherington, Asbury Theological SeminaryThis paper will investigate the views of sacred texts held by Jews in a largely oral culture, including: 1) the preference for the living voice, and when it comes to God's Word the oral proclamation over the written; 2) the function of the nomena sacra in such a text; 3) the beliefs about how God's Word had inherent power and ability to accomplish what it states; 4) the rhetorical function of a sacred text in a culture that has such a text, in contrast with most Greco-Roman religion which had not such sacred book; 5) the importance of oracular prophecy in sacred texts as the closest thing to the verbatim of the living voice, and 5) what scriptum continuum tells us about the character of ancient texts.

Discussion (55 min)

Break (10 min)

If I Forget Thee: Remembering, and Forgetting, in Scriptural Citations by Writers of the New Testament (15 min)Leonard Greenspoon, Creighton UniversityInterest in Scriptural citations by the writers of the New Testament is a perennial issue that shows no signs of abating. If anything, closer contacts between scholars of the Septuagint and those of the New Testament, among others, have cast new light on this intriguing phenomenon. In this paper, I will explore this issue primarily through the extra-textual phenomenon of citation from memory, using modern examples, which can be clearly documented, as a starting point for further examination of the ancient world.

The Place of Scripture in Paul's TheologyG. K. Beale, Wheaton College (Illinois), Presiding

How Do We Judge What Role Scripture Played in Paul's Theology? (10 min)Matthew Bates, University of Notre DameIn terms of method, Richard Hays' influential intertextual model as set forth in "Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul" focused almost exclusively on Paul's use of the Septuagint. There was nothing wrong with this decision in and of itself. The Septuagint is indeed the most prominent text for Paul regardless of the intertextual model adopted. The problem, however, is that subsequent scholarship has by and large become stuck on the Septuagintal Vorlage as Paul's 'pre-text,' without considering how other texts might inform Paul's use of the scriptures. This is a problem which transcends Pauline studies and is indicative of the whole enterprise devoted to studying how NT authors use the scriptures. A more robust intertextual model (drawing on Kristeva and others) recognizes that a 'text' is not only informed by its 'pre-texts' but also by 'co-texts' and 'post-texts.' The utility of this methodological proposal will be illustrated with several examples showing how paying attention to 'co-texts' and 'post-texts' rather than just the 'pre-text' forces a reassessment of Paul's exegesis.

Discussion (30 min)

Scripture and Other Voices in Paul’s Theology (10 min)Linda Belleville, Bethel CollegeA common approach to analyzing Scripture in Paul’s theology is to identify explicit texts and implicit allusions or “echoes” and to consider their impact on Paul theological thinking. The underlying assumption is that Paul's theological Sitz im Leben was primarily if not exclusively that of the Hebrew Scriptures. This assumption results in a leap-frog hermeneutical approach that overlooks the rich tradition of theological traditions and interpretations in which Paul stands and the impact of these “other voices” on Paul’s theology. This paper will focus on the “other voices” and their contribution to some of Paul’s most distinctive theologizing and re-reading of Scripture.

Discussion (30 min)

Break (10 min)

Approaching Paul's Use of Scripture in Light of Translation Studies (10 min)Roy E. Ciampa, Gordon-Conwell Theological SeminaryThis essay will explore some of the potential of the growing field of Translation Studies for the study of Paul’s use of Scripture, including elements of descriptive translation studies (e.g., polysystem theory), functionalist approaches (Skopostheorie), postcolonial approaches to translation, and the understanding of translation as cultural mediation. Particular approaches will be considered that may broaden the scope of issues that inform our understanding of Paul’s use of Scripture including seeing that usage as part of his role as one of the key translators of the message of early Christianity for the Gentile communities to which he ministered.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Although Paul uses a good bit of what we recognize as biblical language and several phrases that seem to echo the Bible in 1 Thessalonians, nowhere does he quote scripture as he does in the Hauptbriefe. This essay seeks to understand how the scattered echoes and allusions to scripture in 1 Thessalonians demonstrate the shape of Paul's apocalyptic theology, whether or not those echoes and allusions would have been recognized by his Thessalonian listeners.

The Use of Scripture in Philippians: How Deep Should We Dig?Stephen E. Fowl, Loyola College in Maryland

There are very few direct citations of Scripture in Philippians. Indeed, the use of Job 13:16 often passes unnoticed and Isa. 45:23 is incorporated into the so-called hymn of 2:6-11. At the same time an attentive reader can dig beneath the surface of Philippians to find a variety of Scriptural passages and themes lying beneath the surface. This raises a variety of interpretive questions about where and how deep one should dig and to what purpose. This paper will both display some of the Scriptural echoes in Philippians and examine how the excavation process might or might not shape interpretation of the epistle.

Writing "In the Image" of Scripture: The Form and Function of Allusions to Scripture in ColossiansJerry L. Sumney, Lexington Theological Seminary

This paper will examine the mostly opaque allusions to Scripture that appear in Colossians. It will consider what such allusions, that the author never identifies as citations, may suggest about how the writer and readers might have prior knowledge of the citation and how these allusions function in the argument (and perhaps in the preformed material in which they appear). We will see what light this might shed on the knowledge and function of Scripture in the church the letter addresses.

2 Timothy has relatively few direct references to Scripture, though still more than the two unquestioned letters of 1 Thessalonians and Philippians. This paper examines the various uses of Scripture in 2 Timothy, focusing on both the "what" and the "how" of this usage.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Bruce N. Fisk, Westmont CollegePaul among the Storytellers: Reading Romans 11 in the Context of Rewritten BiblePaul and his non-Christian Jewish contemporaries inherited many of the same exegetical traditions, adopted some of the same interpretive techniques and generally inhabited the same hermeneutical space. This paper will consider ways in which Paul's use of Scripture in Romans 11 shares this exegetical heritage with the authors of (so-called) Rewritten Bible, in terms of shared techniques and parallel appeals to post-biblical tradition, and in terms of their shared understanding of the nature of Scripture (as gapped, relevant, harmonious, self-interpreting and inspired) and of God (as trustworthy and fundamentally loyal to Israel).

Paper will be summarized, not read. Copies of the papers are available in advance here at the seminar's website: http://paulandscripture.blogspot.com.

Session 2: Theme: Paul and Context

Mark Given, Missouri State University, Presiding

Stephen Moyise, University of ChichesterDoes Paul Respect the Context of His Scriptural Quotations, and Does It Matter?For some scholars, the fact that Paul can quote a text like Isa 52:5 in Rom 2:24 and Isa 52:7 in Rom 10:15 is clear evidence that Paul respects the context of his quotations. For other scholars, the Sarah and Hagar allegory of Galatians 4 and the "muzzle the ox" quotations in 1 Cor 9:9 is clear evidence that he did not. There are also a number of mediating positions such as (1) Paul shows awareness of the context but is not bound by it (2) Paul does not respect the context from a modern historical-critical perspective but does from a first-century perspective (3) Paul modifies the meaning of individual verses but respects their context from a larger canonical or salvation-history perspective. It is also clear that this is not simply an academic question but carries moral implications for Paul's integrity and perhaps even for the faith or non-faith of the individual scholar. In this paper, I will explore whether agreement in the meaning of key words such as "respect" and "context" could lead to some sort of consensus or whether these scholarly differences are the result of different presuppositions.